Tale of HER
by Ydream08
Summary: I wasn't her when I was awakened to the darkness around me. I wasn't her when I spilled blood for the first time. I wasn't her when I claimed my first victory. But still I became her...but still, I became May. (Pokemon Emerald Nuzlocke, T for possible pokemon death and violance)
1. Peace is Broken

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

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><p>Pokemon Emerald Nuzlocke<p>

Chapter 1: Peace is Broken

_It's cold._

_I feel the heat leaving my body and my fingers tremble. I close them into a fist but icy weight of water pulls on my fingers. I feel my throat burning, _I need air, now. _I look up and see the sun shining through the rolling waves, but I'm aware of the distance. _I won't make it. _I push some air through my nose to ease the burning in my throat but I know I'm coming to my limit. I look down and the pitch black bottom is all I see. I'm descending towards it, as if it has an end but I know well that it doesn't. At least, not an end that I will live to see…_

_Now my fists tremble. They tremble with anger. I don't want to die here. I notice a heavy chain attached to my left ankle and remember the hands that closed the metal. I _won't _die here._

_I lift my arms and thrust forward, water sliced through my fingers as I proceed and my free leg throws kicks to add power. I need to get out. There is at least one thing that's waiting for me. There has to be._

"Dad…"

Is that my voice? It was like a whisper... Oh Arceus, I feel so tired! My body aches. I moan as pain washes over every muscle, especially in my arms. The ground shakes and my body momentarily hops, causing my chin to hit the ground.

"Auch," I mumble as I try to straighten in order to avoid another bump. I lay my back against a hard object and get my breathing to steady. I have to get my thoughts in order. _What happened? Where am I? _My head feels as if someone is banging on my skull from the inside. _Gosh, this makes it so hard to think! _"Just… don't ache…"

My plea is not answered so I groan and grab my bandana to get a hold of the hair under. I grasp my hair tightly to somewhat lessen the pain. I open my eyes to get the answers that I am unable to receive by thinking. However I see only darkness. There is nothing else.

"Where am I?" I yell and wait as if someone can give me an answer, but I don't hear a reply. _I'm alone here, aren't I? But why? A cold damped place again?_ I stop at my thoughts. _Again? Did this happen before?_ A memory I don't have presses against my mind. I moan and dismiss the thought aside as my headache rushes into my sinuses.

A light shoots from nowhere, and the pain becomes bearable in the distraction. The blue light comes out of a rectangular object that looks like a plate; there is a red Pokeball pattern in the middle, the beam coming from its button. In the darkness, the beam cuts like a dazzlingly blue midnight sun; it flickers and I think I see a man there. There _is_ a little man in the light, I can't believe my eyes. _Is he a dwarf?_

"Welcome, this is the world of Pokemon!" the man says. He has brown hair and a beard. Also he is a bit stocky, which supports the dwarf idea. But he is wearing a lab coat. I doubt any dwarf wears that. He is perhaps a scientist?

"Pokemon come in various shapes and types. And here is," he says and throws the Pokeball in his hand; a little dark blue Pokemon comes out which has a wide green lotus leaf on his head as if it's a hat, "a Pokemon!"

I stare at him. I might not be old enough to be a scientist, but I'm not old enough to go senile. _He sure is._

"That's a Lotad," I say and look deeper in my memory. _Hoenn Pokemon. Lotad is a grass and water type, and I think it has two evolved forms._

The scientist nods far too eagerly. I worry his head might come off.

"Yes, clever, aren't you! He must have thought of the worst scenario, but you are his-" he stops abruptly, then continues. "No wait, I should ask you first just to be sure. Are you a boy or girl?" he says, scratching his beard.

_Am I a boy or girl?_

Before I said anything, I leaned a bit backwards to look at my clothes. I see my black and white gloves, my red shirt, and my white skirt underneath. _Arceus, I didn't need to look to know!_

_My head sure is a mess. _

"Don't you see that much.." I think for a reply at first, but later I figure that there is no camera on the plate. "Your name first," I say after a change of heart. My voice won't linger; I want an answer of an equal value.

"Haven't I said it? Oh, what bad manners! I'm Birch, everyone calls me Professor Birch. I study Pokemon. That little guy you see is one of my friends," he ends, pointing to the Lotad. It's sleeping.

I sigh and put pressure on my forehead with my palm. I'm in Arceus-knows-where, and there seems to be no way out. Telling him my gender or my name (or even my family tree) won't get me killed.

"I'm a girl."

"Sounds nice!" he says and nods. _What's with the 'sounds nice'?_ "What was your name?"

I groan. _Can he be more predictable?_

"Alev," I say quickly, trying to get this over with now.

"I get it now! Then you are Alev, moving to my hometown of Littleroot! That makes more sense!" he says. But exactly what sense is he talking about? This makes no sense at all!

"Good luck on your journey!" he adds and with that, the image freezes and, not soon after, it vanishes.

"Eh?" I whisper, what did just happen? The blue light is gone, and I'm left in darkness. I was going to shout after him, but the brief confusion cost me the chance to do so. I know he is far gone now as the device no longer makes a single sound. He left me. Despite the brevity of the encounter, I feel strangely alone without the dwarf in the lab coat. And I have no one to answer me now.

I sit there for a while, going through my conversation with professor.

"Journey...?" I mumble. W_hat journey?_ What journey could I possibly have trapped in this dark cramped place?

The ground starts to shake and the sound of everything moving fills my ears. I hold on to anything closest to me; _is this an earthquake?!_ The movement and darkness leaving its place to a dim light allows me to see the boxes that are shaking wildly; they seem like boxes packed for moving… As I come to an abrupt stop, whatever that was in my mind vanishes. I back away and crash into the object, now realizing it is a wardrobe. It hurts. But it is nothing compared to the pain I was in at first.

I rub my back with my right hand, and get help from the ground with my left as I stand up.

Nothing moves and there is light coming in from my left, not like the professor's light. It is sunlight and it is warmth. I yearn for it.

_Time to get out of this place._

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><p>I stumble at first but take a deep breath before I continue; I'm getting out of this place. I walk towards the light and stop at the edge as I grab the side of the opened door. <em>Where am I?<em> My thought is greeted with immense sunlight. I cover my eyes with the back of my hand and narrow my eyes as I try to see through the light. It's green; everywhere is filled with greenery. It feels different...a nice different. I take a look around and can easily sense I'm standing above ground. _It is not high_, I think before I jump. I look back and see the back of a truck. _I was in a truck?_

"Alev! Welcome home!" A Spinda hug. I moan a bit with the pain of my bones cracking but the hug only lasts a second. When we break apart, I see two big teary eyes. I gulp, _I didn't do something wrong_… The woman in front of me smiles and she wipes her tears with her hands. Her long brown hair gets tangled around her thin fingers but she continues to laugh with joy.

"Mom?" I murmur as I came to realize those sapphire eyes are the same as mine; that laugh washed my ears many times before as we played games when I was a toddler. I want to hug her again, but she grabs my arm and drags me to the door of our new house. It is a big villa; its wooden walls are covered with flowers and plants, its window on the second floor is not small enough if we don't want any burglars in, and the feeling I get from this new house is warmth. _I can get used to this house._

"Here is Littleroot Town and this is our new home, can you believe this?! The movers' Pokemon already moved most of the things, come, I'll show you inside!" Mom shrieks and pulls me inside. We enter a vast living room. Not only a living room, there is an open kitchen attached. My eyes scan through the room. Because the furniture came from our old house what interests me more are the huge Pokemon continuing to place a few boxes.

"Your room is upstairs; I hope you like it. All your boxes are unpacked, oh, and your father bought you a clock," she says and pushes me to the stairs. "Don't forget to start it, it's your father's present!"

I can only nod when she gives a last push. I look back above my shoulder and see my mom walking to the couches. _Okay, then I better take a look at my room._

I ascend the stairs and..._Wow, it's huge!_ I see the window that I've seen from outside, to the right of the window, I have my bed and my computer desk across it. I walk to the middle of the room; there is rug underneath my feet, a big red one. I think this is it! My new room...

Just as I'm about to go downstairs, I see a red clock hanging at the right side of the door. It must be my father's present. I take the clock in my hand and set the correct time, 2:13 pm, then hang the clock back.

"Oh, are you done, honey?" Mom says.

"Yep, done," I say.

"And here I was coming up to help you out…" Mom mumbles with a sigh. "Oh well, come on, let's go downstairs."

Mom goes to stairs first and I follow her.

"Come fast!" she yells the moment I step out of the stairs.

"Coming!" I yell back and even though I don't know why, Mom's urgent voice makes me run to her side and stare at the TV along with her. She holds my hand and squeezes it.

"Petalburg is on TV, your father might be too!" she says. _Now it makes sense. So Dad is on TV?_

"…We brought you news from Petalburg City. Next news is from Rustboro City, a thief was caught late at night yesterday and police fear the criminal might be…"

Mom turns off the TV.

"Aaaaw, and I was excited that my dear would be on TV," mom shakes her head as if she changed her mind. "Forget it. Anyhow, Alev, your father's friend's family is living next door. What was his name, your father had said it, umm, I don't remember. Anyway, you should go and say hi."

"Sure," I say. I didn't want to turn down mom even though I didn't care a bit about the neighbours. I sigh, _anyway… _Mom smiles and hugs me one last time before she goes to sit at the couch again, her eyes drift off and I doubt she even noticed when I closed the door not so silently. I step out of the house and notice that the moving truck is gone, _huh, they are quick, I never saw them moving anything in. Weird._

I shake my head and focus on the task ahead. _So, visit the neighbors huh? I can do that…_

Littleroot is a rather smaller living area than I've expected, and now that I've spent half an hour to explore it, I don't think I would ever be lost in it. There are only fifteen or so houses that are scattered around, there is a small market to the south of the town just next to the Lab of some Professor. Other than that, there is nothing particular to visit like a museum. I've heard that kids go to Oldale Town to school since Oldale is a bit bigger than Littleroot.

Our neighbors, however, don't have a small kid to send to school. Or so this lady says.

"Oh, so you are Norman's daughter! Are you done moving? Well, that's great news! Your father told my dear about you, and he's been talking about you ever since! I was so curious even though my son didn't say much. I've heard you are a trainer. Oh, and my son, he is a trainer, just like you!" a woman with dark brown hair says, her hazel eyes sparkle as she talks about her son. _Like I said, that son is not going to school._

"You should go upstairs; my son should be in his room. Go and say hi, don't be shy!"

"Of course, I'd loved to," I say without thinking and smile to her as she heads back to the sofa. _Great …and I'm sent upstairs. Well, people are very enthusiastic today._

I go upstairs and face a room similar to mine. The room is identical to mine regarding to the size of the room, but the furniture is a bit different. They are different colored and his computer is the latest release, well, good for him. Anyhow, there is this Pokeball in the middle of the room. That's what catches my eye.

I go to it and just when I'm about to touch it I hear a male voice.

"Mom told me you are Norman's kid?" I turn around and see a boy my age. He is wearing black baggy pants that goes well with his orange striped black shirt, he has green and orange gloves that are the same color as his sneakers and I notice the light green bag he is carrying that matches with his Pokeball-patterned white hat. He seems ready to go to that journey everyone's talking about.

"I swear I wasn't going to take it!" I shriek as my cheeks burn with heat. I'm a bit panicked, he came barging in! Well, it is _his _room… And I'm the guest. Arrgh, that's not the point!

He was looking at me puzzled but then his eyes drop to the Pokeball behind me, and then he seems to understand me.

"It's ok, I know you wouldn't," he says. His shrug doesn't actually reassure me that he means what he says but I take a breath of relief and smile anyway.

"I'm Brendan by the way, Brendan Birch." he says and offers a handshake. I take it.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Alev," I say. His hazel eyes drop, _did he not like my name? What about a name could you not like?_

"Alev, it is then. I'd thought you were a boy, you know, since you're a gym leader's kid… anyway." Before I go ahead of myself and be annoyed by him any further, he adds after a pause, "Have you started your journey?" As a reply I shake my head as no so he continues. "Well, I've been a trainer for quite a time now, at least more than you have, but I've been helping my dad with his research most of the time. Do you have your Pokemon? Want to battle?"

I shake my head as no again. He sighs in utter disappointment. I think he was just putting up with me for that one question: _Want to battle?_

"That means you are not yet a trainer, huh..." he says, then his hazel eyes lose their shine even more. "Do you want me to catch a Pokemon for you?"

Ok, I won't accept such a half-assed offer even if it were to be a life and death situation...

"Thanks for the thought, but let's keep it at that," I say.

"I'd promised I'd help out Dad anyway, he said there was a bit work left to do in Route 103 so..." he says with a shrug.

I nod and after that, Brendan turns to his computer and types some stuff that I'm not planning on asking, so I take his silence as my cue to leave. I mumble my goodbye. I doubt he heard it.

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><p><em>I want to get out of this place.<em>

The only way out of this small town is the north of the town where a route starts; everywhere else is thick forest so there is no way I can leave from there. I had gone to that route earlier today but when a little girl saw me heading out, she went berserk, asking me whether I had Pokemon or not.

"You can't go beyond here; there are wild Pokemon in the tall grass! Dad said they would eat me! They can eat you too!" she had said. She had a great scream, I can say that much. When I ignored her and tried to pass, she pulled me and cried her lungs out.

But now that it was dinner time, around 6PM, I pray she is gone to dinner.

"Arceus…" I inhale. I see the yellow summer dress and a red ribbon tied to the light brunette's head.

_I'm going to try my chance._

I don't make a single sound, I just walk as if I hadn't seen her; I'm just continuing my stroll around the town. It is a regular sunny day, there is no wind moving the branches and I can hear Wingulls far far away.

Also screams.

There is a pull on my shirt and I see two little hands grasping the red fabric.

"There are screams of someone! I heard some Pokemon too. But I can't go in there, dad forbids me without Pokemon. Miss, can you go and check it out?" the little girl says and I can't turn down those teary eyes.

"Okay, I will take a look. You go home and wait there, ok?" I say. She nods and turns around to run. I stare after her, _at least she is safe._

I face Route 101 and when I break into a run, all I can do is to pray that that person is safe too.

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><p><strong>Hello reader!<strong>

**This new fanfic will be my priority from now on. It is a Nuzlocke challenge of Emerald and it has May as the protagonist. I will be writing her adventure and no items are allowed in this playthrough(till Elite4, I'll have 10 Fullrestores then). I haven't yet finished the gameplay so you can't imagine how much of a blessing those ten Fullrestores are! We'll together see the ending of this adventure, I hope you'll be around!**

**At this fanfic, I'm assisted by Curse of the Ninth. ****As a beta, he is helping me a lot and I would like to thank him for guiding me as I make my dream a reality. His Kanto-nuzlocke is amazing ( which is called Red, check it out!) and he kindly accepted my beta-request for this Hoenn nuzlocke. He has credit in this story as much as I, so again, ****THANK YOU SO MUCH.**

**I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter and will enjoy the upcoming ones, as I enjoy writing them! Don't forget there will be Pokemon death in this fanfic, so beware! **

**P.S: May's name is Alev and it means 'flame' in Turkish.**

**~Ydream08**


	2. Coat of Unknown

Chapter 2: Coat of Unknown

Hoenn? Peaceful? Not as long as it has its Zigzagoons…

"H-HEEELP MEE!"

I heard the scream long before I came to the clearing in which the man ran around in circles. Even though I'm surrounded by tall grass, it is quite easy to see him because of his rapid speed and the fact that he seriously destroys the grass he is stepping on. I come a bit closer and, not soon after, see a jumble of brown hair running after the man. That brown thing that I assume is a Pokemon has lighter crème stripes to its fur and the black stain around its eyes reminds me of a thief's mask. Then I notice the white fabric in its mouth and the missing piece of the man's cloth. _It is a thief._

"YOU OVER THERE! H-HELP! POKEBALLS! I HAVE P-POKEBALLS IN THAT BAG!" the shout of the man brings my head back to the situation at hand.

"Y-yes," I mumble and my eyes scan the grass. _What bag? Where is it?! I can't_—I see the old brown leather of the bag's strap. I run towards it and get a hold of it as I pull the bag to myself. I try my best to keep my cool but as I unwind the zipper, I can still hear the man's screaming. _I have to be quick. I need to help him!_ I remember that little girl in the yellow dress. _She can't, but I will._

The bag opens without difficulty and there, on top of a bunch of files, rest three Pokeballs. The two that are both positioned on the sides have their red semi-spheres pointing upwards; the one in the middle has it looking downwards… I know I don't have time, I know I don't know the Pokemon inside of these things, there is no time to think about type advantage; I need to grab a ball and throw. That's what I do.

My fingers close on the white surface and I threw the Pokeball right away. I hear the man sucking in a huge relief breath and my gaze drops to the brown Pokemon which realized that it was challenged. I stare at its black mask, and even though the brown eyes that stare at me and the deep snarling from its throat keeps me at unease, I remain calm. _Zigzagoon_, I remember its name from me and my dad's study of Hoenn Pokemon, _normal type pokemon, not strong, pretty commonly found._

I nod to myself, sure that I can take Zigzagoon down. _Now better look at what I have on my field_. My Pokemon is a little creature covered with reddish-orange feathers, standing on two thin legs with three claws on each and its yellow beak the same colour as the tip of its three feathers atop its round head. When I summon it, it lifts its head to look at me and I nod to confirm that we are battling with the wild Zigzagoon.

_I don't know its name. This realization won't cost me much, _I hope_._ The wild Zigzagoon doesn't budge a muscle at first but growls at my Pokemon which causes it to back away, but my Pokemon doesn't lose its stand. Then my Pokemon dashes and just before the two collide, it jumps to attack Zigzagoon with its claws, scratching Zigzagoon here and there. Zigzagoon winces with pain as I see a new colour on its fur, red; but without losing its pace, Zigzagoon breaks into a run and throws his body on the little red Pokemon, tackling it. I watch as my Pokemon crashes to a tree nearby and it moans in pain. I want to get in between and help my Pokemon but I don't know _how_, Dad always orders attacks to guide the Pokemon but I don't know any attacks of its!

_Calm down, what is the basic attack of all-wait no, just as second ago it used an attack, its name-_

_I'm thinking all right but the battle continues whether I speak or not_. I groan and say what comes to my mind first, "Tackle!"

The red Pokemon on the field abruptly stops and seems confused; _perhaps it didn't know the attack?_ Zigzagoon dashes once again and tackles my Pokemon. A quick shriek escapes my mouth, _that was because of me!_ The little one stands up again a bit harder this time and causes me to gulp in my misery. _I have to leave the fighting to it_, I tighten my fist and put trust to the Pokemon, _I don't know this Pokemon well enough to order around so I will trust the fighting to it._

As if it realized, the chick Pokemon chirps and takes its position to lunge. It runs with its whole might and when it jumps to scratch the wild Zigzagoon, a few deep scars open on Zigzagoon's face causing critical damage. Zigzagoon is bleeding. _But how come? Why is it..b-?_ Just then Zigzagoon falls on the ground. A few seconds pass in which my pokemon pants heavily of exhaustion, but the wild Zigzagoon won't move. I feel my stomach rising up to my throat so I stop at the tracks of my thoughts.

"You won! That was a nice battle! Thank you for saving me!" I hear a male voice and raise my head. My gaze is switched only to see that the man is putting his white cloak on top of the Zigzagoon, hiding its body. _What happened to it...?_

"Look at you! You seem exhausted as much as I am! We should go back to my lab and talk properly!" the man says as he pats my head with gratitude.

After that I don't know what to say and only watch him as he bends over to receive his bag and call back the little red Pokemon. He, then, faces the way I came and indicates with his head for us to walk back to Littleroot Town.

* * *

><p>"Here you go," Professor Birch says, as he introduced himself. His name sounds familiar, as well as that dark brown beard of his…<p>

I stare down at the mug of hot chocolate between my hands and am thankful for its heat. I feel like I've just got out of an ice cold pool. I shiver and take a sip of the brown liquid. _Wow, it feels so good… _My eyes drop to the drink again and I get back to my thoughts.

I remember Professor Birch, but from where? Oh, right!

"You are the guy from the truck," I exclaim, and add 'dwarf' inwardly.

The Professor smiles, "That would be me. Your dad Norman wanted me to call you back then to make sure you were okay. But now that I see you sitting across me I can tell you are better than fine!"

At the mention of my dad, I feel warmth in my chest. I miss him; he was not at home this noon when I'd arrived, and the past few weeks while we packed, he was not around as well.

I shake my head and take another sip of my hot chocolate. Dad was busy with his new job, so it was only natural.

"Tell you what- it is obvious that you are Norman's daughter! His blood is in your veins," Prof. Birch says and catches my attention. "That battle out there was breath-taking considering it was your first!"

The battle?..

_Zigzagoon…_

_Three thick lines of blood on its face…_

…_lying on the ground._

_The Professor covering it with-_

My eyes lock on to Professor's new lab coat. I tighten my grip on the mug and bring myself to smile. It was a quick smile but a genuine one, at least the best I could muster. I drink my hot chocolate again, however this time the swallowing of a mouthful makes my tongue burn. I put the mug on the table and cough. _Shoot._

"So I was thinking, Alev," the Professor starts a conversation again so I say _Hmm?_ between my coughs. "What do you say you have that Torchic you battled with?"

I rub my chest a little to ease the pain because of the coughs, and the moisture in my eyes blurs the Professor's image. But I can hear well enough. I guess.

"What?" I mumble. 'Torchic' meaning the red Pokemon..?

"I'll give you that Torchic you assisted today in the battle. You two seem to fit, a nice team. What do you say?"

Me having that red Pokemon? Commanding it throughout battles? And perhaps fighting along with during a battle with dad? I'm curious to see how surprised dad will be!

"Really? I'd be grateful!" I say and can't hold myself from rocketing back to my feet as the Professor once again opens that brown leather bag of his.

"Then," he says and the little Pokeball between his fingers drops to my palm. "Here you go."

I press the Pokeball's button and it becomes bigger. I summon Torchic and the red light emitted from the Pokeball forms the familiar figure of the little chick Pokemon I fought shoulder to shoulder today.

"Also this Pokedex-I should give you this—it is a research area of mine. It records the new Pokemon data as well as hosts the ones I already have. You should have decent information on Pokemon you might not know in there." the Professor explains and I open the Pokedex to scan Torchic.

"_Bird Pokemon. It breathes fire from its mouth and the source of this scorching fire is in its belly. Contact would increase the body heat thus radiating warmth to surroundings." _the Pokedex says as I look through Torchic's attacks and gender…

"A male, well, you are a cute boy then!" I say as my fingers scratch its scalp and feathers get messy as I do so.

"Why not give it a name?" says professor. "It would be nice, if you'd ask me."

I think for a second, why not?

"I call you Istanbul? How does that sound?" I say and take Istanbul to an embrace. "Nice battle today, thanks," I whisper to him. He helped me and I owe him.

"Alev, now that you are an official trainer," the Professor's voice turns my head to him and I stand back up with Istanbul. "Brendan, he is doing some fieldwork around Route 103."

Brendan? I know that name. He is our neighbor.

"You should go and give him the news! He should be able fill you in at topics you don't understand. Don't forget, you need to work hard and gain experience to be a good Pokemon trainer," Professor Birch finishes his sentence.

Professor Birch.

Brendan Birch.

Father and son, then?

"You are our neighbor?" I ask and the Professor nods in delight. I remember my visit to the 'neighbors'.

'Want to battle?' and shrugs are the only things I can remember.

_Uuuuuuummm, weeeeeeeeelllllllll…_ I sigh inwardly, _I don't actually want to go and say hi to Brendan…_

_But..._

_His father just gave me my first Pokemon. I can't turn him down._

"Why not?" I say. _Well, because Brendan is an annoying cold statue of self-interest,_ I answer myself inwardly. But my tone is a happy one nonetheless.

"I'd be delighted," I add to be convincing. As Professor Birch nods and makes approving sounds, I understand he bought it.

Now, I better go find Brendan Birch to say _hi._

* * *

><p><strong>Hi there,<strong>

**For this chapter, there are only few things that I'd like to point out. **

**First ****I chose Torchic as my starter, well, because I like it. It wasn't at random; I really love Blaziken. If you are a Mudkip person, then I must say don't be dissapointed, Mudkip will be showing up quite often as it will be Brendan's Pokemon. But I'm truly sorry for those who like Treecko, but I promise you won't feel its absence.**

**Second, for the Pokemon nicknames I decided I'd go with city names of Turkey and started with Istanbul. We have 81 cities and thus far I haven't used even quarter of them.**

**That's it! Hope you've liked the chapter ^^**

**~Ydream08**


	3. Curtain Falls

Chapter 3: Curtain Falls

The light that falls on the red metal causes a bright yellow circle on the girl's yellow dress.

"Can I pass now?" I ask. I can't help when triumph resonates in my voice. Istanbul's Pokeball is in my hand and this little miss has nothing that can give her the chance to stop me.

"Sure!" the girl exclaims. But instead of clearing my way, when I take a step forward, she takes one back. I breathe in and conclude that I must be hallucinating, so I take a few more steps forward, but this little miss won't move out of the way. I force my way three more times but, even if I run, she runs along with me too. _I bet we look like we're dancing, for Arceus's sake!_

"So," I say and catch my breath as to loosen my nerves. "You wanted something, umm,…" _What was her name again?_

"My name is Clara!" the brunette says as she understood why I stammered. She giggles as if it's funny. I stare at the little girl. Her giggle is in my ears and her billowing dress blocks my vision. _I was hoping to see the trees of Route 101, not her dress!_

"Nice meeting you Clara, I'm Alev." I say as I use my stock of patience, not that I have a huge stock. "What did you want?" I sigh, starting to lose the hype I was in from getting my first pokemon.

"I want to see Alev's Pokemon!" she says and one more giggle follows her announcement. "Because, you know, not every Pokeball has Pokemon in it!"

_Yeah, I just bought an empty Pokeball to show you so that I can get the hell out of this town._

_Wait- why didn't I think of that before?..._

"For example this Pokeball that my mom gave to me, doesn't have Pokemon inside!"

I bury the evidence of this idiocy to deep within my memory, and when I listen to Clara again I see a bracelet, she is jingling it in front of my face. At the end of the shiny thin metal chain, there is a small Pokeball attached which has a golden colour to one of its semi-spheres.

"Oh," I say, _she has a Pokeball_. I stretch my hand to the bracelet but Clara pulls her hand away as she starts to unlock the bracelet. "I'll show you my Pokemon, you show me yours!"

I nod and wordlessly get Istanbul's Pokeball. "C'mon out," I mumble without letting go of the Pokeball and watch as the red light emitted forms the familiar shape of the little chick Pokemon.

"So cute!" Clara shrieks and just when I see her hug Istanbul, the bracelet falls on my lap. As I'm hearing Istanbul's cries from the suffocation Clara's arms cause, I just beg for a minute of his endurance. I just want to check out this Pokeball, _my Dad never had a golden one like this_. I take the bracelet in my hand, and press to the Pokeball's button. It instantly grows as big as my palm, and now shines even brighter under the setting sun. There are letters engraved on its golden surface, and if I had to guess I'd say a 'G' and an 'S' were written on it. But I don't actually want to make a guess; they seem to have distinct characterization, chances are that I will be wrong.

"C'mon out…" I say the same way I did with Istanbul. For a few seconds, nothing happens. All that is different is the sound of Istanbul's quickening pace. _Better run faster, Istanbul_, I think but my gaze is locked on the golden Pokeball.

I wait.

Wait…

... I waited enough.

I throw the damn ball to the air and wait for the Pokemon to come out, but my eyes follow as the ball hits to the ground. It only makes an anticlimactic thud on the grass.

"Sis?" I hear Clara's voice and she comes near me with Istanbul in her arms, who tries to struggle free as if his life depends on it. "I told you, there is no Pokemon in that Pokeball. Mom gave it to me as accessory. You forgot that?"

Now, Clara's cute giggle is really getting on my nerves. I take Istanbul's Pokeball in my hand and I call him back. Clara's arms close on each other as the Pokémon between them vanishes.

"Then, now that you met Istanbul, I think I'll be on my way," I say and try to forget that I wasted five minutes of my life for nothing if getting angry didn't count as a 'thing'.

I smile at Clara as I _gently_ pat her head. I walk away towards the Route 101, but when I'm only a step behind of exiting the town I hear Clara's voice from behind.

"You don't want the bracelet?" she asks. I turn around and see her running towards me. _Wanting the bracelet? I don't really want it and it's not the most thoughtful thing to take a child's toy_. However before I say anything to protest, Clara puts the bracelet in my hand.

"Here, I want you to have it!" she says and takes a step back. I nod and mumble my thanks but she shakes her head as she lifts up her hand, her pinky pointed at me. _She wants a promise?…_

"In exchange for my bracelet, I want you to find mom! Dad told me she is traveling Hoenn. You will travel too, right? Tell her to come back home!" she says but even though she raises her voice in the end to conceal the lingering in her tone, her big brown eyes shine with tears. I grab her pinky with mine. "I promise."

* * *

><p>The golden Pokeball hits my wrist as one step comes after another, but I'm getting used to it.<p>

"She said her mom's name is Elizabeth Moon," I mumble to myself and decide that writing the name down would be better. _However I doubt I packed notebook and a pen, so I have to stop by the market in Oldale Town._ Nevertheless, I raise my upper arm and look at the Pokeball. It no longer shone. The sun had set some time ago and even seeing its bright yellow surface became harder with each passing minute. I sighed; night is falling and before my luck of not running into any wild Pokemon ran out, I want to reach to Oldale Town. _First Pokemon Center, then the first thing in the morning I will go to the market._

After fifteen minutes of jumping in my shoes at every two minutes because of the howls of Pokemon, I finally reached Oldale Town. As I was told, Oldale Town is bigger than Littleroot. I can count twice the amount of houses we have there from the lights that are on now in Oldale, but even that does not come close to the cities I saw on TV. But the Pokemon Center, which is two floors bigger than the tallest building in the town makes my hometown like an isle with a single palm tree when compared. However, I must say, besides the resident number, I doubt that there are more interesting shops in here. As I made my way to the PokeCenter I saw nothing that caught my attention as a tourist attraction, so I guess I have to say Oldale is pretty ordinary itself.

I stepped in the PokeCenter and the warmth that greeted me is one that I will never forget. I didn't realize how cold it was outside while I was walking. Now in here, it feels like I came into a nice sauna. I walk towards the front desk but as I come closer to it, the echo of my footsteps put me at unease. I look around and realize that there is no one at sight. A few green couches here and there are lacking human weight on them, the three or four phone booths are barely in service (two have cracked screens) and now I notice that the light is lingering. I mean, it flashes and dies in rhythm. I look up and see that the lamp is broken. Why is there no one here?

"Excuse me?" I yell; 'no one in sight' didn't mean it was abandoned, did it? "Hello?! Anyone here?"

I waited but not a single sound replied me. _There is nothing I can do_, I guess. I targeted one of the couches and walked towards it. I take off my bag before lying down, and untie my bandana. _Just the night, sleeping on the couch won't kill me._

* * *

><p>My neck hurts. Also my back. And my arm feels numb… Did I mention how much my neck hurts? The couch literally killed me.<p>

"Here you go!" the salesman says as he hands over my package. I bought myself a notebook and a pen after I got out of PokeCenter this morning, I wanted to buy Pokeballs as well, but the salesman said they were out of stock and that he didn't know when Pokeballs would arrive, so I just went with the notebook.

I exit the PokeMart while being busy with putting the notebook and the pen in my bag, and then with the help of some signs and my _successful_ guessing, I arrived at the mouth of Route 103 in half an hour. If I remember what Professor Birch said correctly, Brendan should be around here doing research.

I pass some tall grass and can't help but curse the fact that I haven't seen a single Pokemon. This is probably because of Brendan; even Pokemon are aware that my business is with him, and so they do their best to avoid coming across such a know-it-all arrogant boy by staying away from me.

I take a deep breath in, and remind myself that I'm doing this for Professor Birch. He asked me a favor, to say hi to his son; and I'm too polite to turn him down.

And what can happen?

The worst? Well, Brendan can sulk and call me a boy again, which would result in a battle where Istanbul would clean his clock.

"Hah," I laugh at the thought. It is amusing, to be honest. Defeating Brendan would be fun. I know Dad defeated most of his challengers now in Hoenn, all of them; so I know winning is not half bad. Mom used to cook lasagna at such events. I do love lasagna.

My stomach grumbles now, so I quit my quick daydream. I shouldn't have skipped breakfast, but I didn't know where to find a restaurant. And getting lost didn't seem as attractive of an option as getting my job done.

I shake my head and remind myself of my objective: find Brendan and say hi.

"Hi! Remember me! I'm the _girl_ you met yesterday!" I say to myself. Rehearsal always does wonders, right? "I'm the _girl_…"

EVEN THINKING ABOUT IT MAKES ME ANGRY! He will, again, be like, 'oh, was it _you_?' His mockery will be dripping from his words. I really don't want to hear his voice or see his face!

"In 103 there is also Poochyena, wolf Pokemon. For the Type, I think it would be either Normal or Dark…which…?" These mumblings cut my internal calamity, and I find myself staring at a white hat. The eyes under the hat slowly rise to meet mine and I hear the exact words…

"Oh, was it you?" Brendan asks. His green backpack is near him and the contents are scattered around, labors of his research. The pen in his hand is moving no more but rests leaned on his cheek. "I knew the noises sounded familiar…" he mumbles.

_Don't tell me he heard me… No, just no. Can I run away? And act like this never happened._

A neon "NO" flashes in my mind.

"Professor Birch-I mean, your dad told me you'd be around here. So I came to say hi," I say. This is the worst thing to say in the history of starting a conversation. At least I wasn't saying this with a shy tone while pausing at every word. I had sounded more ticked off and at the end, when I rolled my eyes, I notice Brendan's twitching. He is annoyed. _Then the point goes to me._

"Yeah? Hi then," he says and stands up. There is an awkward silence in which we stare at each other in utter disgust. _Look at him, putting his hand on his hip so leisurely, having that sly look on his face and that half smile that asks for a beating_. Wait, that is exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to challenge him for a battle…

"You have a Pokemon now, right? One on one, let's do this," Brendan says and takes the initiative. His hand directly goes to his belt. After a quick snap from which I understand he unhooked a Pokeball, I see him throw it and the same red light forms the figure of a strange Pokemon.

I, too, go for my Pokeball and throw it. After I know Istanbul is on field I take my Pokedex out to take a look at Brendan's Pokemon.

"_Mudkip, a water type Pokemon. With the help of its fin on top of its head, it can detect movement around itself. When cornered, this Pokemon can attack with a power four times its mass," _the Pokedex reads. I close it and put it back to my bag.

"Finished?" Brendan calls out just when I close the zipper. _Idiot_, I think but only clench my fist without saying a word.

"Scratch!" I command to Istanbul. My command is the sign of the battle's start, from then on I hardly could interfere.

Istanbul dashed but it isn't as fast as Mudkip; the water-type growls and I notice Istanbul shaking a bit when he closes in. He delivers the claws right on the opponent's face nevertheless. However when Istanbul backs away I don't see any difference on Mudkip; on its face there are only three to five pinkish swellings.

_What should have happened?_ I push away the question that pops in my mind, because as it emerged so did the image of Zigzagoon's injured face.

I shake my head and hear Brendan yelling a command. "Tackle!"

Not soon after, Mudkip collides with Istanbul, who rolls backwards and winces in pain but I know he will stand back up. The battle is not even close to over. Without any need of further instruction, Istanbul gets back up and runs for another scratch. This time his claws dig deeper in Mudkip's body and I see the red colour once again.

I know what will happen next. _It will bleed out._

My eyes lock on with Brendan's but he seems not aware of the injury that Mudkip has just received. He grits his teeth and his mouth opens to issue another attack, but I'm unable to hear him. _Are we going to continue to battle? _Mudkip is standing. It hasn't fallen down. Yet. _Why won't Brendan stop? Last time when my battle ended…_

Mudkip tackled Istanbul with so much force that I hardly had a glimpse when Istanbul flew passing by me, and crashed into a nearby tree. I hear him moaning in pain but my eyes follow him as he finds his footing and goes for another scratch. This time the scratch lands on Mudkip's throat and a sudden river of blood showers the grass. Mudkip collapses, as does Istanbul. Both not moving, if I'm not imagining it…

…_when my battle ended, Zigzagoon was dead._

I ran to Istanbul. I stretched out my hand and grabbed his little body, embracing him and saying over and over again, "Istanbul, you're with me. You're with me…" I bury my head in its feathers and feel the cold sticky substance crawling on my face. I lift my head and see that Istanbul is bleeding; on its fiery feathers there is also the red of blood. He has a wound under his right wing just above his belly, there is a branch stuck in his body. "You are with me!" I mumble once more and am aware that my voice is cracking. Istanbul's eyelids barely fluttered. _If pain is easing, that means…_

_Oh no, Arceus, help me!_

I need to do something. It's hot; the blood against my skin is hot. It wets Istanbul's feathers and stains my heart. I know Istanbul is in pain, I don't know _how much _but… I hiccup and feel my cheeks dampening. I wipe away my tears. I need to do something. _Help…_

My cry of help finally manages to escape my throat. "Brendan!" I shriek and lift my gaze to find Brendan carrying Mudkip the same way as I do Istanbul. "Brendan, we-we should do something! Head to the Pokemon Center—"

"MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" Brendan yells all of sudden. Everything stops at that moment. My head aches and what I can only hear is the rustling of the leaves that dance with the wind to find themselves on the ground.

Brendan is not talking anymore. I see him squeezing Mudkip but I can't see his face even though I'm kneeling on the ground. Then Brendan turns away and runs.

I gulped and tried to maintain the only thing I had: my sanity.

I stand up and run towards Oldale Town. I have to go to the Pokemon Center and try my chance if anyone is there to help me. Istanbul needs me to find a doctor for him. I can't let him down, now that I owe him _twice_. Second was that he put up with me with my selfish request of battling against a _rival_.

Mind your own business, Brendan had said.

_I will_, I look at Istanbul and one last tear drops. _I definitely will._


	4. Unexpected Happenings

Chapter 4: Unexpected Happenings

"Anyone?" I yell at the top of my lungs. "ANYONE? HELP!"

My voice resonates through the open space to fill my ears once again; even the faint echo feels like someone is shouting right at my ears. My head spins so I change my weight from a foot to another to maintain my balance; the sheer force that keeps me from falling down and passing out is that right now, there is a life fading in my arms.

"PLEASE…" I yell again and beg for someone to emerge out of thin air, a doctor if possible; I need one, desperately. I hush as my throat closes to any other attempt to cry for help. No one is here, just like yesterday. The couch I had slept on is the only one without a sheet on it, the dust on the broken screens of the phone booths are still untouched, the light above my head flickers and every time it dies for a split second, my whole world goes dark. My head hurts, the light won't be still, and Istanbul's breathing is close to none.

I had yelled so much, to everyone. _That_ person was the first. Afterwards I had asked help from many on my way here, but the townspeople only directed me to the Pokecenter, nothing more. Numbers increased, but my only help was determined from the start regardless of how much I searched for another: an abandoned Pokecenter.

"Pardon me!" The doors of the Pokecenter opened with a wry shriek, and I instinctively jerked around. There, running as she stepped in, was a female of the age twenty. On her long pink hair was a white hat with a red plus on the middle. _A nurse!_ "I saw you running. Sorry it took time."

She got near me and right after she summoned a Pokemon, her hands reached for Istanbul. The act was to examine him, I knew that, but I couldn't just give him away. My hold on him tightens as I back away a step. Istanbul blenches and now he breathes rather heavily as he struggles for air. _He doesn't have much time left, I know that. But why was _she _not here earlier?_

"Your Pokemon needs care, now," the nurse says with a defiant voice. I know that very well, but why now? Why now when he is so close to…!

Tch. I can't argue, not with myself or with someone else- not now. I bite my lips to sustain my anger, and whisper between my teeth, "Please, take care of him."

The nurse nods, and as my eyes were shut tightly, I don't see when Istanbul is taken from me; I only feel the loss of weight in my arms and I feel empty. My arms are tired. But I'd rather them tired, if not, then they are useless.

I stare after the nurse as she puts Istanbul on a stretcher, the Pokemon she called earlier, a big pink one with a similar hat on its head, runs along with her to take Istanbul to the emergency room. The door closes behind them and "EMERGENCY" flashes bright red.

* * *

><p><em>When will he come out? Is he okay? If he is not okay…<em>

My fingers are folded on top of each other; now at the tips of my nails where they sink into the skin, a sharp pain trembles my fingers from my own excessive force. It had been long ago that I still had my water reservoir full. Now I am dried out. I feel not only exhausted but if it not for my thoughts that haunted my mind, I was to pass out. _Istanbul, you are with me. Please._

_DING._

I turned my head towards the high-pitched sound; the red light on the sign had died. I spring back to my feet and run to the door of the emergency room. The pink haired lady comes out and lets out a deep sigh.

I don't dare to say a word, so I wait. She raises her gaze to meet mine. After a few seconds that pass like years to me, the nurse smiles. She walks to me and takes my hand; she leaves a small mass on my hand and closes my fingers on it. Without even looking at what it is, the cool surface of the metal eases my nerves.

I hiccup, laugh; I do everything that means _this_ is over. My left hand wipes my tears that I had thought no longer could possibly come, the end of my glove cleans whatever comes out of my nose that I'm unable to keep under control with sniffing… I cry. I cry till my heart realizes the weight that is lifted is not imaginary; everything is okay now.

Istanbul is safe.

* * *

><p>"Thanks," I mumble as my fingers touch the cold plastic. Without waiting, I drink the cup in one go. The water flowing through my throat leaves an easing sensation and refreshes me as I recall how much water I had lost in the past hours.<p>

"You're welcome," the nurse says and sits across me at an armchair which didn't have its sheets removed. That pink pokemon of hers was cleaning up the place for quite a time now as the nurse mentioned, but it wasn't yet up to the job of cleaning the front desk, I guess.

"I truly am sorry for my absence," the nurse starts conversation. I lower the cup and put it aside as I listen to her. "This Pokecenter hasn't done much for the past years so I rarely feel the need to be here. It was my fault, please accept my apology."

The cup bent inside, under my hold.

"Apology?" I whisper to myself, if she had chosen to not come at all, an apology wouldn't have brought Istanbul back.

_But you were the one who accepted the battle at first, _a voice rose within my mind but I chose to ignore it.

"I can only thank you for your help," I decide to say at last. "You saved my Pokemon."

The nurse shakes her head as I finish.

"I did not; you did. You can't believe how few bring their pokemon to the Pokecenters. My distant cousin, Nurse Joy from Fortree-I heard she even turned the center to a dining shop. Truly disgraceful…"

_Dining what?_

"Nurse Joy?" _A nurse changed a hospital for pokemon, to a dining shop for people?!_

"Yes, dear?" the nurse says and looks at me as if she expects a question. _Might be that her name too is Joy?_

"Why is it that this happens-" I stop and can only stare at Nurse Joey's sorrowful frozen smile. It is obvious what she means, _I'll be sure to _see _the reason._

"Thank you again," I say and so Nurse Joy nods her acknowledgement. I act to stand up to leave so Nurse Joy follows me to the door.

"I'll be sure to keep this place lively!" Nurse Joy says. I smile and bid my farewell. After a few minutes of walking as I looked back at Nurse Joy waving at me, I couldn't help but feel annoyed of that Fortree's nurse. I cross my arms around my chest; _I know Pokecenters are also accommodating places for trainers but excluding the healing department?!..._

Just before I turn to right from the end of Pokecenter's road, I decide turn around to look back one last time. Nurse Joy is still there, her back facing me; I notice her pink hair from even this distance. She doesn't move for a second, and then she turns to her right to walk away, passing by the closed doors of the Pokecenter.

_She is...leaving?_

When Nurse Joy disappears from my vision, all I do is to stare at the Pokecenter's door. Now, even the broken light is shut down, not even a ray escapes from the windows.

* * *

><p>I hadn't seen any Pokemon Trainers on my way to Oldale Town, nor had I seen any in Route 103. Pokemon were few in number, residents barely got out of their houses if they were in them, and trainers hardly ever came here. I didn't need to live weeks in Oldale to notice this; the past twelve hours that I've been here were enough. As I aimlessly walked around, my mind too wandered off. I easily concluded this; along the route from Littleroot to Oldale, there was no life.<p>

I raise my hands to rub them together and breathe on them for some heat. I had dirtied my gloves so I had put them back in my bag but now my fingers were freezing. Cold weather of the evening and my low stamina add continuity to my shivers.

"Dad called," a familiar voice says. When I raise my gaze, I see two hazel eyes with dark bags under them, looking at me. I had ended up at the mouth of Route 101, and there, giving his back to a thick tree trunk, stood Brendan. "He didn't say much. I waited for you to go back to the lab. Let's go."

Brendan won't wait for me to say a word and is already on his way back. As I stare at his white hat, misplaced from him scratching his scalp, he truly gets on my nerves.

"Brendan," I say but even though he heard me he didn't stop. I clench my fists. There are a few things Dad had taught me not to do: swear and hit. I wanted to do them both right now. "BRENDAN!"

My scream is what makes the rustling of the leaves at the background sound more odd, my scream is what makes the silence so unnerving; my scream is what makes him finally give a shit!

I rarely cursed, because I find it rude myself. This guy in front of me, however, does not deserve to be acted towards politely.

"You are not going to ask me…" I start to voice my mind but my anger shortens my breath and I need some calmness to sound reasonable. "Aren't you going to ask me, if my Pokemon is _alive_?"

He can't have a heart of stone. He has his Mudkip, for Arceus's sake, he must know how much it hurts to see your Pokemon getting injured!

_You injured his Pokemon, then _you _have a heart of stone_, the voice echoes in my mind. I dismiss it, again. My conscience was a tough one to hush, but either acknowledging or ignoring it are the few options that I can choose from.

Brendan slowly turns around, rubbing his right eye. "So?" he mumbles. "What happens if I do?"

_What happens if you ask?! It would mean you are a normal human being with emotions! Compassion, at least!_

"Look," he continues when all I could do is to stare at him while I fly off the handle. "No hard feelings, I won't be the only one not _asking_. Battling is what trainers do."

The way he said it, clearly implying my lacking of _sense _thus stated my idiocy. I agree that battling, indeed, is what trainers do. My dad is a gym leader for Arceus's sake! However knowing one's limit is common sense whether be it a ranger, professor, trainer, gym leader, heck a champion!

"No hard feelings," I mumble. "Yeah."

I stare right at him, at the second thought, I stare past him. I don't care. Not anymore. He is right, why would he ask? _Because he nearly killed Istanbul out of desire!_

"You didn't ask," I hear him say.

I stare at him and, just then I see him rubbing his left eye this time. I had noticed those black bags under his eyes the moment I had seen him, but I had forgot. _He didn't have the nicest night_, I suppose.

_Defeating Brendan would be fun, _those were my thoughts yesterday and they took little time before hitting my eardrums. My mind was telling me to stop this. Brendan was at fault, but I wasn't born soaked with Arceus's light just yesterday.

I didn't ask. I'm an idiot. He is one hell of an idiot. But I'm no better.

"How is Mudkip?" I ask and as I look at him, tears forcing their ways out of my eyes, I try to keep my stance.

Brendan shrugs.

"Not better than your Torchic," he says and starts walking. He didn't wait for me again. But this time, I won't want him to check on me. If he does, it will be harder for me to mind my own _business_.

I hate him.

* * *

><p>"IT'S SIS!" I hear the scream before I stepped into the town. As my ears had witnessed this powerful cry earlier, I can tell whose it is: Clara.<p>

"Sis, it's the lab!" Clara yells as she runs to our side. I don't understand what she's getting at. Brendan is already gone out of sight and probably had blended in with the crowd that the few people who lived in Littleroot had formed. But as my eyes scan through the town and detect the dense grey smoke coming out of a big building, I finally understand.

"Go to your mo-_dad_!" I say and grumble over the fact that I was nearly going to say _mom_. However I give myself some space for the near mistake I had done since my brain stopped when I registered that the lab was on fire.

_Why?_ My brain shouts and the notion is followed by others: _When? Who did it? Is everyone okay? Why aren't people calling for help?_

I run past the few houses lined on both sides of the road and elbow a few elderly people (I do shout my apologies) as I make my way to the lab. The lab itself hasn't yet been swallowed by the fire so as I'm a few steps a far from the door, all that is different is the increase of volume in people's cries.

I grab a man at his early thirties and tell him to find help, call firefighters, a hospital or any kind of help. He points at his ear, _he didn't hear?!_ I yell to be heard over the crowd. The man nods and vanishes from my sight; if he were to wait a bit longer I would have _lost_ my mind.

"DAD?!" Brendan's voice brings my attention to the matter at hand and I can't help but notice the worry in his tone. I run around the place to search for Brendan and ask what to do, but he is nowhere to be seen. He shouts for Professor Birch once again. _I can't hear a reply though._

A huge cracking sound breaks the news that the wooden doors of the lab fell apart.

_I might as well lend a hand._

I leave my bag on the grass, thinking Istanbul would be of little help as it is newly healed and quite inexperienced. Everything else in the bag was not a help to extinguish a fire. First I wear my gloves regardless of my disgust; I have to minimize any risks of getting hurt while helping. The door is blocking the way in but as the bright red dances inside the lab, I think of an alternative.

The window.

"PROFESSOR!" I yell as my hands pull my body through the window, and I land on the ground. The building is filled with smoke, blocking my vision. As I open my mouth to shout once again, it fills my mouth and lungs. I cough and feel tears coming out of my eyes. _It burns_. I pull my shirt to my nose and run around the place, shouting as I proceeded.

"Professor?" I yell but the few rooms that I pass by are empty. _Where is he? _I realize that I hadn't seen any of his workers outside.

"Anyone?!" I yell and scold myself of my stupidity. Professor has his assistants, Arceus knows if they are okay! "ANYONE?"

"Alev?" the faint voice was nearly concealed between the burning flames and falling bookshelves.

I run to the voice's source and find Professor Birch fallen on the ground, blood running down his forehead. I rush to his side and shoulder him, impossible as it might sound. The moment I got a hold of him he gave a final deep breath which –I pray Arceus that it is so- indicates he just blacked out. Once I got a firm hold of him, I plan to get him out and come for others who could be still inside.

_Heavy_, I think as I head outside. However, before I take one step forwards, I collapse under the professor's weight. _You shouldn't have a hot chocolate stock_, I scold the professor inwardly and remember the middle-aged men's shelf full of various candies and chocolates.

My knee starts to hurt not soon after as I fail to stand back up again. I'm sure it's scraped and likely bleeding, but what hurts the most is my chest. By now all that I smelled was smoke and my lungs refused to take in more of it. I'm not much of a fan of this either…

"Hey, you came to sleep?" the voice's sudden appearance makes me jump at my shoes, the voice isn't of one that I'm an acquaintance with; but before I can understand anything else I'm dragged back to my feet and pulled towards the exit.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello!<strong>

**For anyone who was wondering why there was GS ball in the earlier chapter: I want to make this novelization interesting! The main plot of the game won't be changed (no fears for that) but a few extras won't hurt ;D And I hope I caught your interest, be sure to read till the end of the story to learn how things turn out.**

**A sidenote: I'm half way through the actual game that I play on my Gameboy. I'll leave another note when I finally finish it.**

**Hope you've enjoyed the chapter.**


	5. Till the Reunion

Chapter 5: Till the Reunion

"C'mon, I don't want to die in this place!" the voice groans. _Do you think I want to?_

My knee hurts so it's painful to take even one step, but the need to reach to open air forces me to continue. I want to get out, I _have _to get out, as soon as possible, but my will only gives me so much speed.

I'm still only five feet away from the guy. I haven't fallen behind yet; that's an accomplishment.

"You don't hear me?!" the guy shouts again, his voice was coarse and powerful; I didn't have any difficulty hearing him, even when a column hit the ground with the scrunching noise where it crashed through the wood. Fire blazed up in a pinch and lit up the place; I felt like I was staring through the welcoming gates of Hell.

"Don't just stare!" I hear the guy's scream and he pulls me by my wrist and drags me out. The moment fresh air fills my lungs, the building collapses under the fire, greedily swallowing the old wooden structure.

It was just two days ago that this lab was one piece, where Professor Birch gave me Istanbul. He had given me my first Pokemon just because he thought we were a nice team; Professor Birch is a nice man, a man of generous heart. He wouldn't let an accident occur in his lab where his life-long research resides. He had even checked the oven twice before giving me my hot chocolate few days earlier. This unfortunate event is not an _accident_. I swear on my dead body it isn't. _Then who did this…?_

"He's breathing," the guy says and I hear a sigh of relief as he sits near professor. He takes out his bandana and wipes his forehead of sweat. His eyes find mine and all I do is gulp. _He saved us_, I think and wonder who he is and why he was stupid enough to jump in a fire. Although, I did jump in too. We're both idiots, then. But he is a surviving idiot. I would have died in there if it weren't for him.

The guy stands up, walks to my side and bends over me; as he does something with his blue bandana, I can only stare at him. His blond hair has ash in it, especially on his bangs which are now messily combed back. He is wearing a white-striped black shirt and blue pants which remind me of a sailor's. _There is no sea close to Littleroot, what is his job here?_

There is suddenly a sharp pain in my leg, and a quick fricative noise reaches my ears.

"That should help to stop the bleeding," he mumbles and I follow his gaze. His eyes are locked on his bandana which he has just wrapped around my knee. He seems quite satisfied. The bandana, now stained with my blood, reminds me of the light injury I got in the lab.

"Thanks," I say and he lifts his gaze to meet mine. He rolls his dark green eyes and stands back up. I, too, stand up and notice that my knee doesn't even hurt. It wasn't that much of a serious injury…

_He is a nice person_, I think but as the notion surfaces, I realize he is on his way to go.

"Wait!" I say, I know that I can't just let him go with meager gratitude. _Where are my manners? This guy saved my life!_ I don't know why, but being nice doesn't need a reason. "Thank you, really; you saved me back there."

He stops, and something about the way he gets a hold of his hair, as if he wants to hurt himself...it makes me wonder about his motives.

"I was just passing by. I should have helped earlier, I don't want the guy to die," he says without even turning his head. I might be wrong, but I can't help but think that I heard guilt in his tone.

Abruptly, I put analyzing his tone aside; _did he just say that he didn't want the _guy _to die?_ All I understand from that was saving my life was a bonus. Way to go, _hero._

"Then you _should_ have helped earlier," I say and I'm a hundred percent sure that I sound agitated. Heck, I _am_ agitated! He could have even bragged about the fact that he _saved_ me, I would have been annoyed by that too, but seeing my life as nothing? Saving it doesn't mean a thing?!

"I didn't know that the fire would spread so much- you know what? Forget it," he says. "Boss will kill me if he notices," he adds under his breath and before I can say anything else, he runs away. The thick forest is a nice cover if one wanted to vanish out of sight.

That's what he did.

* * *

><p>I couldn't wake the professor up, so I tried once again to shoulder him. He hadn't lost a kilogram in the last minute, but clear oxygen helped me endure a bit longer than inside the lab.<p>

"Give me a hand!" I yell, and when I enter the sight of the crowd, shouts rise and a firefighter takes the professor away from my hold to take him to an ambulance. I look around and notice Brendan in another ambulance, farther away, helping the staff load unconscious people to the cars. I run to him and the moment he sees me coming,he smiles.

"I saw you with dad just now, thank you," he says. Even though I know it was that other guy who was the one to save the professor and me, I feel extremely delighted for the sincere gratitude. And it is quite easy to convince myself that Brendan can live without knowing that blond of whom I don't want to think about even for a split second.

"I'm glad I was helpful," I say and nod. "I didn't see you so I went in, you-"

"I got to the assistants first, there were three of them so I couldn't make it in time for dad," Brendan says.

I squeeze his upper-arm to reassure him and say, "It's all over now."

He nods. I wonder how we ended up having such a normal conversation. Brendan seems not like a bad person at all. But if making him nice takes starting a fire, I'm not up to the job.

"ALEV!" a high-pitched scream finds its way to my ears and not soon after, my hands are cupped in someone else's. "I was worried sick! When I saw Brendan run here, I looked around for you but I couldn't find you anywhere!"

It was Mom. She's laughing and crying at the same time. Arceus, I made her worry, didn't I?

"Mom, look I'm okay! Just a scraped knee, nothing else," I say to convince her that I'm no ghost. In her eyes, right now, I'm sure that I'm as good as a Gastly, that I can dissolve within seconds and she would never find me again.

"Scraped your knee?" Mom shrieks and I pat her shoulders to ease her nerves. I turn to Brendan to shrug, as though to say, '_parents'_; but I find him staring at my knee, still patched by that blond guy's bandana. I don't like the look in Brendan's eyes; he looks odd, suspicious even, his right eyebrow high up on his forehead.

"Fire only affected the lab, the town is safe, so am I," I say, turning back to my mom. She is my priority right now. "Let's go home."

Mom nods so I wrap my arm around her shoulder, and we walk towards the house. She lists all the meals she's prepared and talks about how I will love them all. I smile and the thought of a nice meal adds to my exhaustion as I'm reminded that I hadn't eaten since yesterday.

Mom fixes the table once we are inside, and I go to my room to get changed. I throw everything to the washer and head downstairs. The doorbell rings as I step in the living room, so I rush to the door to find Clara holding my bag. _I totally forgot that!_ I thank her a million times and invite her for dinner, but she says her dad is waiting so she doesn't stay. We don't stay up late with mom either, as we're both tired.

I go to my room and before going to sleep, I head to the bathroom and bandage my knee properly. It wasn't a serious injury like I had guessed, but it sure had bled a lot. I wash the blood out of the bandana and as it regains its bright blue colour, I notice an emblem in the middle; a white circle with a small triangular-shaped tapered foreland on the top, and at the lower side of the circle, two bones sticking out on the opposite ends. _He sure has a weird fashion sense, _I think, _and a weird personality_.

* * *

><p>"Here take them," Brendan says the following morning, handing me five Pokeballs. "You'll need them."<p>

I mumble my thanks but I don't understand one thing: _Where did he even find these? Oldale Pokemart was sold out—_

"Wait!" I shriek as the realization sinks in. "You bought the last ones in Oldale!"

My accusatory scream wins a smirk from Brendan.

"Yes. First come, first served. Life, some call it," he adds. He should quit philosophy. The last time idiots like him claimed that Arceus was dead or non-existent, Sinnoh natives had hunted them down. I never heard the end of the news. But my news of Brendan won't end well.

"Thanks," I say between my teeth. I had forced the word out because last night I had concluded that he was not a half-bad person. I hate him alright, but if he continues to be this nice to me I can change my first impression—

"Dad had asked me to give you a few Pokeballs in the first place," he adds with a shrug so I hush my thought and seal it in a box which is not to be opened even after my death. So it wasn't that Brendan was nice; the professor was thoughtful...

"So nice of him," I say and don't continue as I had learned from Mom that Professor Birch was back to his normal health. Besides that, I had no other topics to discuss with Brendan.

After a moment, when I decide to leave without another word, Brendan speaks up and stops me at my track.

"Is your knee better?" he asks.

I nod and don't say anything else as I feel that something is fishy about the way he asked.

"You had something else on your knee yesterday," he starts to say, sounding even weirder than a moment ago. I don't know why but my hatred towards him makes my mouth move instead of my brain before I can protest; it still does a good job though.

"I had wrapped my bandana on the bleed," I say. Brendan opens his mouth to object some detail that I don't care about. "I'm lucky that my bandana is red; it kind of bled a lot. Mom would have freaked out if she actually knew how much."

I know he is not satisfied, the look on his face screams it. But I can't put a finger on why he cares so much. It was just a bandana. I had wrapped up our conversation that way, making up a story; so I say my goodbye and leave.

* * *

><p>"Istanbul, scratch it one last time!" I yell. Dad had taught me how to catch a Pokemon when I was younger. It was quite easy in theory; tire it and throw the ball. It didn't take me much time to realize I couldn't exactly say when a Pokemon tired out. The first time I threw a Pokeball, it didn't stay in so Istanbul and the wild Poochyena were battling for a time now; the grey furred pokemon is a tough one and a rare sight to me as I came across it just at the far end of Route 101. I suppose knowing when the Pokemon is tired out is a matter of intuition. <em>I want you.<em>

Istanbul's claws come in contact with the little wolf's belly and it falls down, struggling to rise again. It pants, not yet still. I don't know if it will change a thing because it seems close to black out, but I threw the Pokeball. The sphere soars, unclasps, absorbs the creature, and falls. I close my eyes and start to mumble. "Come on, _come on_". The Pokeball shakes for the third time and the white button in the middle shines. Then, it doesn't move.

I walk towards the Pokeball and take it in hand. I don't dare to call out the Pokemon as it might come out as a… I shake my head, _it is not dead_.

I hook the Pokeball to my bag's strap on my waist and continue my journey.

As I pass by the Pokecenter of Oldale, I'm not needed to be reminded that Konya, my newly caught Poochyena, has to wait till the next town. Oldale is done for me, just as Fortree is.

* * *

><p>"Seedot!" the younger trainer shouted as he rushed to his pokemon's side. Istanbul's claws were atrophied due to the Grass-type's hard shell, but where they had finally found flesh, his claws had given fatal injuries. "Now what am I to do? I wanted to challenge the champion!"<p>

The boy's eyes were a waterfall; he undoubtedly swallowed snivel along with his tears. However as he had already called his Pokemon back, I had little faith that he was crying over a gone comrade.

Today, this was my fourth battle and my fourth win. But my stomach hadn't changed its mind.

I don't stay there long as a gag rose in my throat. I had managed the run far enough before I kneeled beside a tree and could no longer sustain the urge to take everything out. My eyes burned with tears as, one after another, my heaves continued. I didn't have anything left in my stomach since my breakfast had got out within the hour that followed, so now all that wets the grass was the acid of my stomach which burned my throat as it found its way out.

"Why?" I ask myself for the umptheenth time today. '_Battling is what trainers do_' was what Brendan had said. I couldn't deny that in order to get stronger battling was mandatory. However, my first challenger did everything in her power to take Istanbul down. I had managed to avoid the attacks but when at last Istanbul had taken an injury on the left eye, I counterattacked. She had driven me to a corner, so Istanbul and I defended ourselves. The second and third battles were no different; trainers did not give up until they saw Istanbul unmoving. I wouldn't let them see such a sight. I ordered Istanbul attacks repeatedly, never giving up as the challenger ceaselessly continued aiming at the little chick's throat. I'm not going to lose Istanbul, that's an objective I take to heart. _But not losing my Pokemon shouldn't mean death to the opponent's!_

I had avoided battles for the past hour till that boy with the Seedot detected me behind a tree. I didn't want to battle but there was no escape once a trainer challenged you. Istanbul got in between me and his Seedot and the result was inevitable.

_This is how it works_, I mumble to myself and wipe my tears with the back of my hand. I take out a water bottle from my bag and drink some to even out the water loss. I sigh with the last gulp. Istanbul is safe in his Pokeball. _The first aid I did to his eye will prevent an infection,_ I hope. I don't need to look at the map to know I'm only few hours of walking away from Petelburg City. Once there, I'll head to the Pokecenter. I just pray that Istanbul can handle it until then, since Konya is in no condition to battle.

"An amateur!" someone yells and strong laughter follows. I had come to a clearing which had fewer trees surrounding it; past those pines, I could see one or two houses of Petelburg. In this clearing was a boy around the same age as me who preferred to shout his lungs out rather than talk.

"You challenge me?!" he said, his mockery painfully evident, and as I took in the scene before my eyes, I saw a slim boy in front of the loud one who was obviously struggling under the other's pressure.

"No, I was just… I didn't mean to…" the slim boy couldn't even get a sentence out of his mouth, his light green hair streaming from one side to another as he hastily shook his head. I'm impressed that he is even standing, looking at his fragile figure he could've easily passed out by now.

"C'mon, we're battling! Take out your Pokemon!" the bigger guys shouts. Looking at his fashion sense of ripped pants and black leather jacket, I would have seen from meters away that he was not someone to be messed with. If not danger, he is at least flooding with bravado.

I sigh; the green-head needs a hand. I have two, that's why I can't just walk by without interfering. Since my last battle, Istanbul has rested for a time now, and I had no intention of staying until the actual battle starts. I have no second doubts as my feet take me to the scene of the argument.

"Um, you wanted something from my friend?" I say as I put a hand on the green-haired boy's shoulder, half pushing him behind my back. _A little lie wouldn't hurt us, just a bit booster...as long as he plays along._

"I want a battle!" the guy growls and his hand goes to his belt. _I came at the right time_, I guess. _He has run out of patience._

I notice that on his belt there are six Pokeballs; trainers did not keep empty Pokeballs on their belts. The guy had either caught six pokemon of the same species, or had come to this Route 102 from another town. The second meant he was no beginner, thus I can't take him out. However if my first guess is correct I can finish him…

I don't want to _finish_ any other Pokemon.

Besides I would be stupid to hope the latter guess was not correct.

Just as the guy is about to call his Pokemon, I take a hold of the slim boy's hand and make a run for it.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello!<strong>

**First off; HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you'll have a great and healthy year with new wishes that are to be fulfilled! **

**Furthermore, as you noticed, from here on, there will be more Pokemon additions to the team! Now that we have Pokeballs, I believe this is when the nuzlocke starts. I started out with a Poochyena, its name is Konya. (Konya is the biggest province in Turkey and used to be the capital to Anatolian Suljuk Sultanate in the ancient history.)**

**I hope you've liked the chapter! Reviews are always welcomed and I will consider the ones for this chapter to be wrapped in gift papers, with pretty red ribbons on it ^^ I wonder how far we'll come in this story when I celebrate your new year in 2016...**

**Anyway, again, happy new year! Hope you'll have a great time with your family/friends/loved ones. **


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